0000000000158307
AUTHOR
Igor Spanò
showing 11 related works from this author
Le molteplici risonanze di Vāc
2021
introduction to the publication of the works of the conference held on 25 and 26 June in Palermo
Il culto dei gatti in India. Continuità ed evoluzione di credenze e pratiche religiose dall’India vedica all’India contemporanea
2019
Cat as an animal is a sporadic presence in Vedic mythology and Brahmanic works on rituals, while it appears in a few cult practices of contemporary popular religiosity in India. This article holds that in Indian devotional practices, the cat is conceived as an animal with an ambiguous nature. It also suggests that the cat cult is linked with the need to tame chaos, violence, and con$ict, and to place them in a controlled, orderly, and pacified cosmos. To understand these phenomena, this article studies, from a multidisciplinary perspective, contemporary religious practices in the light of the Indian tradition, and suggests that the cat cult was subject to substantial Brahmanization.
Streghe per Covid. Le accuse di stregoneria in India durante la pandemia di Coronavirus
2020
This survey aims to present an initial assessment of the incidence of the phenomenon of witch-hunting in India during 2020, at a particularly dramatic historical moment marked by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. The data are partial, but indicative, and have been gathered through daily monitoring of the main Indian newspapers in English and some newspapers (national and local) in Hindi. In India, the belief in witches is a phenomenon that is linked to specific elements both of Hindu cults, whose devotional expressions and folkloric elements are rooted in the Vedic texts, and the belief systems of some indigenous communities. Indeed, although influenced by the expressions of the Hindu …
"We Want to live as women". Emozioni e riconoscimento di sé nell'autobiografia di una hijra
2019
A note on emotions and self-recognition through the analysis of Revathi's life, a member of the Indian traditional transgender community of the hijras
Aksamala. Studi di indologia
2016
Indological Studies about Vedic and Indian Myths, Anthropology, History of Religions, Philosophy
L'irruzione del corpo femminile sulla scena sacrificale. Tra sessualità esibita e sessualità interiorizzata
2021
A study of women's roles and performances in Vedic rites
Vr̥kṣa vivāha. Dendrogamie in India fra tradizioni antiche e pratiche devozionali contemporanee
2021
An inextricable tangle of branches and roots arises in many Indian villages in the place where two trees united in marriage (vr̥kṣa vivāha), grow intertwining with each other in an everlasting 'embrace'. This interweaving describes well the complex network of symbols and textual references that are revealed in the relationships that Indian culture has built around a pair of trees: the aśvattha and the śamī. In this paper, I will try to highlight some mythological and ritual aspects related to this pair. The two trees, in fact, although in today's context separately, are the object of rituals that turn out to be true tree marriages. In particular, concerning aśvattha, what is striking is tha…
Ragazze folli di miele, Il miele e la celebrazione della parola nel rito del mahāvrata
2021
In these pages, we will explore the rite of mahāvrata, a Vedic rite connected to the celebration of the new year, from a study perspective aimed at the performative dimension. Specifically, I will focus on the final scene of the rite, because it is only at this moment that the actors and the ritual dynamics compose a particular scenario, evocative of fertility, in which some maidens, the ritual fire, and honey are the protagonists. The maidens are called upon to dance around the mārjālīya hearth and to intone a chant in which they repeat the word madhu ("honey") in an increasingly frenzied manner. The words spoken, in some cases meaningless formulas, reveal a unitary sense and hint at the f…
Divinità e colori nell'universo vedico
2008
Color symbolism in Vedic Deities
Vivere come donne in India: l'insolito genere delle comunità hijra
2021
The study aims to investigate the history and practices that characterize hijra communities in India in order to shed light on the specific reality of these heterogeneous communities of individuals who are placed outside the heteronormative identity codes, but who have historically been included within Indian society, with very specific roles, thanks to the elaboration of the notion of tṛtīya prakṛti (third gender). However, historical events, especially since the British colonial period, have made the position of hijras increasingly marginal: the various forms of discrimination and violence, which take place within the family of origin, the health system, and society in general, were furth…
The kalivarjya concerning the prohibition of initiation during the celebration of the Vedic sattra rituals
2022
The subject of kalivarjyas, their origin, and their place within Brahmanical ideology has attracted keen interest from various scholars. Indeed, the kalivarjyas constitute ‘exceptions’ to the dharmic norm that seem to invalidate the authority of the dharma itself. However, they allow us to verify how the dharma has been constantly adapted to the new requirements that have emerged with the transformations that have taken place in India over time in the religious and socio-political spheres. Among the kalivarjyas, some refer to the field of śrauta rituals, and the one concerning the prohibition of the sattradīkṣā, i.e., the initiation on the celebration of Vedic rituals of the sattra type, ap…